Wednesday, 26 December 2012

GRAHAM HURLEY'S WESTERN APPROACHES: I.T.'S CHRISTMAS READ

Joe Faraday is dead by
his own hand. Bazza McKenzie, crime lord of Pompey, is dead. His
betrayer, ex-cop Paul Winter, has gone off into hiding with Misty
Gallagher. And Jimmy Suttle has taken his journalist wife Lizzie and
their baby daughter down to a decrepit house in Devon, where he's now
working for the Devon and Cornwall police. So when the body of a
wealthy rower is found on the pavement below his huge penthouse
overlooking Exmouth's shore, Suttle's instincts kick in, and he is
determined to prove that this was indeed a major crime and not a
suicide.

Western Approaches
represents a change of direction, as it were, for Graham Hurley.
Faraday was a loner, a 'depressive detective' in the mould of Beck,
Bosch, or Resnick, but what made the series succeed so well was the
growth of Winter as a character; the two of them providing a sort of
partnership even though they weren't actually together. The problem
with switching to Jimmy Suttle is we don't really have a good picture
of the man, and what makes him tick, he's younger and with less
backstory than his superiors in Portsmouth. But it's a problem Hurley
solves deftly, by making Suttle's marriage the focal point of the
story. Lizzie is frustrated, as their brucolic dream becomes a dreary
nightmare, intensified by Suttle's ability to settle for making do,
and his growing satisfaction with the work. Lizzie misses her work,
misses her city, and in effect misses the people they were when they
got married.

It is interesting how
this story trumps the actual investigation into the crime, although
inevitably they do come together, as Suttle encourages his wife to
join the rowing club to which the murder victim belonged, and indeed
tried to dominate. Rowing provides Lizzie with the springboard to
recapturing her own life, for better or worse. Suttle also has to
deal with his own past, in the shape of some of Bazza's old Pompey
gang, who want revenge on Winter and assume Suttle will know where to
find him. This highlights another problem for Hurley: the previous
series plays an important part in this story, and the characters play
a part too. If you're coming to it cold, it will not resonate the way
it does if you followed the whole Faraday-Winter saga, that is
unavoidable, but he manages to built up the background through
inference to avoid the reader relying solely on explication.

The actual 'mystery' in
this tale is not all that mysterious, though at least one of the
suspects, a former actress living in a trailer with her wanna-be
film-maker partner, is interesting enough to warrant more
time—indeed, Hurley creates a number of female characters who cry
out for more attention, but that attention is really directed at
Lizzie. And it's a fine piece of writing, as he delineates the
growing chasm between her and Suttle (who is anything but,
ironically), and charts the ebb and flow of their
relationship—something which echoes the movie the rowing pair were
getting the murder victim to fund.

The crime plays out as
one might expect, but Lizzie and Suttle's story plays out with more
than a few twists, which are worth leaving unspoiled. The final one
however, suggests an immediate sequel, which already has conflict set
up, because Hurley does something he writes very well: has a
character act against a number of instincts because of one that is,
in the initial instance, more powerful. That is the frailty which he
has examined in great deal in the Faraday/Winter books, and he's off
to a good start here. Western Approaches was my Christmas Eve/Day
read, and it's actually published tomorrow: too late to be a gift,
but definitely a present.